LONG BLOG

Truthfully, I was surprised by how much I struggled to put the subject into a perspective that [hopefully] makes sense.

So. What's it like to game with me? To answer this question I opted to reminisce on the times I've played videogames with friends who've grown so close to me that I've come to think of them as family, and after some skipping down memory lane, I have concluded that playing with me has a fair possibility of decending into a miasma of chaos that leaves spectators in awe and those caught in its treches howling with laughter, bubbling with spite/loathing and/or trapped in a fit of paranoia.

When my friends and I get together (Normally, there's five or six of us at a time), we tend to indulge in a lot of videogames. We try to keep a nice variety going around whether it's 2-players, 4-players or one person playing and trying not to embrass themself while everyone else observes and criticizes their every action.

Now, I could go into details about the insane comebacks a mate and I have pulled out of our rears in Sonic 2 Vs. Mode and Mario Strikers Charged, spectacles that had all of us busting our sides on the floor in the Smash Bros. Series or the time I took on [u]Mega Man X's[/u] entire Sigma Fortress with no Light Capsules save for Zero's buster; but each of these stories and numerous others could fill out entire blogs on their own, so my focus is on what stirs discord among myself and my friends.

The genre of game plays a part in determining how frantic our sessions get. Our fighting games (LOTS of SNK stuff, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc.) tend to lean towards our most civil arguments; the most we escalate to involves a lot of "your character(s)/team is cheap and/or bullcrap" and countless "one more's" that can go into 10+ more matches if anyone waiting for their turn fails to pry the controller from the loser's hands.

Now, games like Mario Party (ESPECIALLY the first one) and co-op that allows and encourages interactions between partners (think NSMB Wii/Wii U or Rayman Origins) are the types of games that bring ominous winds around because the four of us playing may have to work with someone [like me] who may decide to screw some fool over for a laugh, or out of pettiness/paranoia because they fear someone else is going to try to get the jump on them first.

This snowballs into an avalache as two people start arguing, vowing to spite the other the rest of the game. Then, the other two succeeding in constructing some grievance with each other and inspire to compete in said contest mentioned above, resulting in the rest of the game for each group being dedicated to harassing their target at every opportunity so they can rub salt and lemon juice into the wounds once they've lost, regardless of what position either of them or how much was accomplished as long as the mission of completely dragging down their nemesis is a rousing success.

Despite the tone of the work above, we really enjoy ourselves [almost] every time we see each other. The key ingredient in crafting our time together into a barrel of laughs is the fact we actually see each other in person, presenting the rare chance of being able to do what we can't do over a phone or on voice chat.

Even if we were able to play every one of our games online, it wouldn't hold as much merit as being in the same room, because only then could you ogle the vivid detail in the exasperation of a friend as that platform they needed to land on to avoid the fiery depths in the Rayman Legends demo is yanked away by the dickhead who was supposed to push it to them in the first place working the Wii U Gamepad.